Puppeteer Shari Lewis, 65, Creator, Voice Of Lamb Chop

Ventriloquist-puppeteer Shari Lewis was often dismissed as a relic of television's dusty and innocent past. But she was able to refashion herself into a playfully positive presence and cagey marketeer in this high-tech age.

Ms. Lewis died Sunday at age 65 at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles where she was undergoing treatment for uterine cancer and pneumonia.

With her peppy personality and her furry puppet companions Lamb Chop, Charlie Horse and Hush Puppy, Ms. Lewis entertained children for more than four decades on television, on home video, in books, at live performances and on CD-ROM. She operated on a simple philosophy: "I have always believed in innocent excitement--magic, stunts, music, riddles--instead of explosions, crashes and chases."

This endeared her to parents and educators and won her 12 Emmy awards, seven Parents' Choice awards, the Action for Children's Television Award, and the John F. Kennedy Center Award for Excellence and Creativity. It also made her a fortune. In 1997, Shari Lewis Enterprises Inc. was sold to Golden Books Family Entertainment for an undisclosed price.

Ms. Lewis' preternaturally youthful looks belied the shrewd businesswoman underneath, a person who was not only able to withstand the vagaries of the entertainment world but to thrive there.

Shari Lewis was born Shari Hurwitz in New York City to parents who were educators. But it was her father, an amateur magician who often used puppetry as an instructional aide in his classrooms and performed in public as Peter Pan the Magic Man, who encouraged his daughter's show business ambitions.

In 1952, shortly after graduating from New York's prestigious High School of Music and Art, Ms. Lewis won top prize on "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts." Five years later, she appeared on "Captain Kangaroo" with a curly-haired hand puppet with a squeaky voice, fluttering eyelashes and engaging manner. Its name (gender was never determined) was Lamb Chop and together they were a hit.

That one 1957 guest shot led almost immediately to "The Shari Lewis Show," which ran Saturday mornings on NBC until 1963, when most children's programming on television went to animation. Ms. Lewis transformed herself into a successful Las Vegas act and later kept herself and her puppets in the public eye by doing the celebrity game-show circuit, most memorably on "Hollywood Squares." When that venue vanished, she began a lucrative run conducting symphony orchestras, as she did as recently as 1993 at Ravinia. All the while she wrote books, some 60 of them, and produced more than two dozen videos.

In 1992, she returned to television with the PBS series "Lamb Chop's Play-Along," which won five of Ms. Lewis' 12 Emmys.

Diagnosed with cancer in June, she started chemotherapy treatments six weeks ago. At that time, she ceased production of her latest PBS children's series, "The Charlie Horse Music Pizza," a show which focused heavily on music and which had premiered this year.

Though she will never be as highly regarded an innovator and artist as that other early television puppeteer, Burr Tillstrom, the creative force behind "Kukla, Fran and Ollie," Ms. Lewis' legacy is solid. Playing straight woman to her collection of sassy puppets, she offered the gentlest sort of children's television fare, a melding of entertainment and learning.

"I never play teacher, I never play parent," Ms. Lewis said in a 1996 interview. "I play older playmate."

Survivors include her husband of 40 years, Jeremy Tarcher, and a daughter, Mallory Tarcher. The family issued a terse and tender statement: "Shari is also survived by her beloved family of characters, Lamb Chop, Charlie Horse and Hush Puppy."